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Strategic planning is a tool used for designing strategies and allocating resources to the comprehensive implementation of the strategy. The management needs to have a clear picture as to where the organization is presently and come up with a strategic framework that will assist the organization to achieve its pre-determined goals. The management should ensure that the strategic plan being designed is not an over stretch of the company and its resources. The plan should be easily convertible into action in the shortest time possible. The plan should also be integrated into the day to day activities of the organization. Strategic planning can involve coming up with many goals at the same time that need to be achieved as part of the organization strategy. These different goals need to be compatible with one another. This is to mean that achieving one goal does not inhibit achieving of another. When the goals are compatible, this situation is known as goal congruency and it is essential for effective strategic planning. For effective strategic planning, the management should possess a clear understanding of the vision, mission and values of the organization. The plan should be based on these core features of the organization. The vision of the company is what the company aims to be in long term. The mission is used to describe the purpose of the existence of the organization. The mission also points out what the company aims to do in order to achieve its vision. The values of an organization are the beliefs that cement the members of the organization. The values of an organization have a major impact on the work culture of the company. They also provide a guideline to the decisions that will be made in the organization. Values come up as a result of traditions and past experiences. Useful tools in strategic planning include SWOT analysis. This acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This tool analyses both internal and external strategic features. Another tool utilized by managers is the balance scorecards. This tool simply comes up with a systematic design to aid in strategic planning. One important benefit of strategic planning is that it assists the organization to properly define the purpose or mission of the organization. The plan aids organizations in coming up with realistic, effective and achievable goals that the management would have otherwise missed. Another aim of strategic planning includes increasing specificity in all sectors in the organization be it in marketing, production or management. With increased specificity, overall output increases. The plan will also assist the management to establish a clear and effective communication path with the employees. Effective communication brings about cohesion in the organization. Combination of the efforts of all the stakeholders in the company guarantees that the goals set will be easier to achieve. Using strategic planning, the management can come up with various ways and devices to effectively use the resources that the company has. In this way, there is minimum, if any, wastage of the company resources. These resources include capital and manpower. Author Bio: Sumit Srivastava is a Business Strategy Consultant which is involved in designing breakthrough marketing and business intelligence solutions derived from a blend of powerful fusion of knowledge and imagination. He occasionally writes articles in niche marketing segments, branding in India and consumer insights.
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